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Kyoto Animation's involved, so I'll definitely watch it. Hopefully the animation quality is up there with the work they did on Air. Anyone have a summary of what the series is about? It sounds like Thelastguardian did have a summary posted in this thread at one point, but the forum crash wiped it out.

Edit: After I posted this, I did find a couple sentences on Google that describe the plot...based on this I'm looking forward to seeing it even more, it's an interesting premise:

Spoiler:

The plot is comedy adventure and something like the American film Bruce Allmighty excpet in a school setting and with an odd twist. Kyon is a highschool student who's life is turned upside down by classmate, Suzumiya Haruhi. She just happens to possess a special power which warps the world around her be any way she wants. The twist is she isn't aware of this.

/fanboy mode on
from my favourite author...to locate a tiny flame of hope in the rubble and fan it madly with a big hat.
Therefore I am praising it as much as possible.
:^)

Quote:

Originally Posted by suguru

Spoiler:

The plot is comedy adventure and something like the American film Bruce Allmighty excpet in a school setting and with an odd twist. Kyon is a highschool student who's life is turned upside down by classmate, Suzumiya Haruhi. She just happens to possess a special power which warps the world around her be any way she wants. The twist is she isn't aware of this.

That is such a dull way of putting it XD .

The novels are fun to read because they are written in an unique first person point of view.

Spoiler:

It is a joy to read the thoughts of the main character as Suzumiya embarks on different adventures unknowningly. Dragging the kicking and screaming main character with her, that is.

And of course, it is up to her personal support squad to deal with her "effects" on the universe.

Then again, they have no literature value whasoever. Light novels, indeed.

to locate a tiny flame of hope in the rubble and fan it madly with a big hat.
Therefore I am praising it as much as possible.
:^)

If you consider its popularity right now, compared to when the first volume was released almost 3 years ago, I'd say Suzumiya Haruhi managed to burn on brightly quite well.

It's another story with the English community though, of course.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thelastguardian

Then again, they have no literature value whasoever. Light novels, indeed.

Literature is literature, it doesn't matter what kind of writing it is. And the value of a piece of literature is never determined by any one person. A novel may be nothing more than a bore fest for one, but a life changing experience for another.

Suzumiya Haruhi's unique point is that while it doesn't seem very deep on the surface (comedies abound with all the characters getting themselves into all sorts of situations. Haruhi seems to be nuts all the time, Mikuru-chan always getting abused, Nagato always... reading (and the guys doing whatever they do) and things seems to be revolved around a ridiculous school club created for a nonsense reason), it's actually dotted with memorable, dramatic moments (especially when they come in heavily contrasted against the usual comedy) that makes you snap to attention. And for me, that makes this novel more interesting to read than a novel that's always focused on drama.

One of the funniest single anime episodes I've seen. Your mileage may vary, since this kind of smart (?) Pythonesque absurdity is the humor I love best. The cat clinging to the witch's shoulder and continually almost falling off just about killed me.

humor: A
animation: A (Kyoto Animation!)
backgrounds: AChihara Minori as Yuki: A (She does a nice job with the ED, too.)Gotou Yuuko as Mikuru: A++ (A match made in heaven.)

Bringing "Asahina Mikuru no Bouken Episode 00" as the first episode introduction is the best way to the craziness of Suzumiya Haruhi to people who haven't read the novel, yet a great way to bring out laughter to those who did. BRILLIANCE!!!

Other genga studios should definitely learn a lesson/tip or two on bringing and maintaining god-level sakuga qualities.

I just hope Asahina Mikuru's off-key OP (In my opinion, this was genius at work!! It totally brings in the "shitty amateur video" jive!!) doesn't put people off of a terrific show wwww.

One of the funniest single anime episodes I've seen. Your mileage may vary, since this kind of smart (?) Pythonesque absurdity is the humor I love best. The cat clinging to the witch's shoulder and continually almost falling off just about killed me.

Seconded. While I was already expecting something from that one, the first episode definitely managed to surprise me in a good way. Well, I took a look on the manga firsthand, so the begining was quite a "wtf" and it took me the opening and another half minute to get that they were making a movie.

Anyway, the comedy level is quite high, though it's more to the fact that the movie and its making were portrayed as a quite ambiguous project. And due to its theme it manages to become a great mahou shoujo parody.

The character designs are pretty nice and animation is really good. What I liked the most were all the pans and the amateurish effects which exactly captured the essence of such a "fan/student"-made production. :)

Overall a highly unexpected but moreso an enjoyable watch. Definitely recommended, if only for the nice designs and animation and the characters. :P

Omg that was amazing, I can't believe they actually went with volume 2's movie as the opener. Oh, and I laughed so hard at everything. Kyon's constant tsukko... I mean narration, Koizumi's bouyomi, the teachers busting onto the roof... everthing.

And excellent job with the "home video" look, they got the wobbly camera, awkward zooms, bad picture quality (and I thought it was the anime itself at first), bad cuts, outside interruptions... they even got the overexposure/underexposure effect (like the cherry blossom scene in the end).

It's scary, I'm already 100% certain I'll be buying the DVD for this when it comes out, if only for this episode.

The next episode seems like it's finally going to backtrack to be beginning, can't wait. ^^ (By the way, are we going to count it as episode 1 like Haruhi says, or 2 like Kyon says?)

I just hope Asahina Mikuru's off-key OP (In my opinion, this was genius at work!! It totally brings in the "shitty amateur video" jive!!) doesn't put people off of a terrific show wwww.

I can't get the Op out of my head This plus the interesting choice of soundtrack is what attracted me to the show. After the "shitty" OP and one of the "fighting sequences" I was hooked, the one with the eye beam combo. If quality like this continues from ep 1/2 on then we have a definite keeper.

I just had a brief look at 2channel, and there is certainly a lot of interest: over 1000 posts in the 12 hours since the show aired. But there are definitely two camps:

1. "This is stupid. What's going on, why is she in a bunny costume, is she a mahou shoujo? You must have had to read the novel to enjoy this."

2. "This is great. Hilarious. The surface may seem stupid, but there's really a lot there. I'm so excited."

Clearly not all Japanese understand the better class of Japanese humor, lol. This episode reminds me of the smart self-mocking absurdity of British shows like Monty Python and Absolutely Fabulous.

The decision to start with the movie was really genius, like kj1980 said. I've only read a bit of the manga, and found the way it started a little slow-moving. This way, you are drawn into the Haruhi universe right away.

If this keeps up, Ichigo Mashimaro will have a competitor as the funniest anime I've ever seen.

I vote for this being episode 1, and next week episode 2. It's not as if this is a prologue. In any case, it's easier to keep track of the number of episodes if we don't go all coder and number the first item number zero. The file I saw was called "The Unhappiness of Suzumiya Haruhi, episode 1: Asahina Mikuru's Adventure, episode 0."

Oh, and I have a question for kj or someone else: how to translate the title. Is it Haruhi who is melancholy/depressed/unhappy, or is it that she makes the people around her that way?

I just had a brief look at 2channel, and there is certainly a lot of interest: over 1000 posts in the 12 hours since the show aired. But there are definitely two camps:

1. "This is stupid. What's going on, why is she in a bunny costume, is she a mahou shoujo? You must have had to read the novel to enjoy this."

2. "This is great. Hilarious. The surface may seem stupid, but there's really a lot there. I'm so excited."

1 = First-time viewers, or those who are not familiar with the novel.
2 = People who know something about the novel? Or maybe first-timers who just liked the episode?

For anyone who have read the novel, (at least, those who have read up to or beyond Suzumiya Haruhi no Tameiki (the second volume)) this first episode was pretty much pure brilliance. (To put it another way, those of us who are "interested" enough to follow the novels can all appreciate these kind of situational humors found throughout the series)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

Oh, and I have a question for kj or someone else: how to translate the title. Is it Haruhi who is melancholy/depressed/unhappy, or is it that she makes the people around her that way?

I'm quite new to the story, but I love the animation. The hand-held camera work was hilarious even from a visual stand point alone. The choppy cuts, people in the background holding up light cards, blurry camera shots, over-exposure/under-exposure, reaching for scripts (reminds me of my college days)….daring stuff for an anime. Just loved it. The preview animation looks awesome. From the brief snips of the preview (the stairwell scene), there seems to be nice depth & shadowing. Great character designs.

Does the cat really talk? Hope so. That would be a total bonus (for me).

Wow...that has to be one of the most unique first episodes I've ever seen. Kyoto Animation has outdone themselves--can't wait to see this subbed, it was funny even watching it raw and I couldn't understand 95% of the dialogue. The reactions from the club members were priceless ^_^

<Paracelsus> "Suzumiya haruhi no Yuuutsu is ten times more awesome than School Rumble."
<Paracelsus> His opinion is too pumped, but still...
<******> Well, go for it if you think it's good. The manga honestly bored me.

I trust his opinion, but I'd like to know your opinion about the manga, because if it is a manga adaptation then....

Wow, I can't believe I ended up watching this, but I saw BluWacky's blogging on it and he said it was hilarious and unexpected (or something to that effect) - so I thought, why not just get the damn thing.

Gosh, did this air on April Fool's? IT would have fit the theme perfectly!

I am so surprised by the way they REALLY got the shitty-amateur-video thing across, it had me laughing throughout! A loooong time since a moe show has made me laugh... The lousy acting, the forgetting of lines, the teachers (that was hilarious!), the cat that almost fell off (I LOVE that cat, I can't wait to see more of it ), and... the reeeeheeaallly bad special effects

One of my favourite bits was the whole segment when Yuki was going to do something to Itsuki and then Mikuru appears and bumps into the pillar.... and then Yuki goes off, and while she's going off someone's closing a car door - that was brilliant! It really felt quite funny.

It's really great how they actually showed this in the anime, I haven't read the book but I actually want to watch at least one more episode to see wth this is about (and the general outline seems not bad, at least it's not harem... I hope)

Which is a great achievement, when's the last time I've enjoyed this type of show?!

And kj1980's right about how other sakuga studios should learn a bit from Kyoto - especially J.C. Staff! Look how much better the same illustrator's designs look here compared to Shana (well, I think they look much better-drawn here)
It may not be innovative animation ala Studio 4C and Satelight, but the key is that the animators seem to care about what they're doing and really put in effort to make it look like it should... GJ staff.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I liked the narration - halfway through: "Th-wait, you mean there's still another half to this?!" and earlier "Normally he'd call an ambulance or ask a bystander for help, but this young man is instead carrying this unconscious girl away like a princess in his arms, where does he think he's taking her, the bastard."

I also really liked the bit where Mikuru's classmates acted as zombies... "Sorry, Mikuru, but we've been, uh, kind of zombified, so..."

I don't know how much longer I'll watch it as I think at some point I'll start demanding more reality (I wonder if real high school students in Japan would do this... well, I wouldn't know), but hey, I stuck through all of Air, I'm sure I can stick through this... if its done well.